Luer fittings and Luer connectors are used in the medical industry, among others, to provide leak-free connections for fluids that must travel through multiple components to reach their desired destination. Such fittings and connectors typically have a male component, which has a fluid-carrying tube that fits into an opening of a female component of a Luer fitting or connector. There is typically a portion of each component that is designed to screw into a portion of the other component. Alternatively, such components may be held together by friction alone. Such fittings are tapered, and designed to fit inside or outside another fitting. In either case, there is a force that is placed upon such Luer fittings and connectors when connected to one another. The material of construction must be both flexible enough to attach to one another, and durable enough to withstand such force, for an extended period of time.
A wide variety of fluids may pass through Luer fittings and connectors, ranging from water, to saline solution, blood plasma, and medications. Some of these fluids may even degrade materials used in the Luer connectors, breaking them down over time, and eventually leading to small fissures or even cracks in the material. Such material failures may lead to a loss of containment of the fluid.
Plastic and other material suppliers who provide the materials that are used for Luer fittings and connectors must test their materials, in connection with such fluids, to determine the materials' compatibility. Typical methods include soaking a piece of the material in the fluid. However, such a method does not approximate the force such materials must withstand when they are used in association with such fluids. A soaking test without any force may not identify if and when the materials may experience cracking or fissures, much less where such cracking or fissures may occur.
A test of Luer fittings and connectors, which are connected together while a fluid passes through them, may also not be a reliable test. While such fittings and connectors are tightened to form the connection, the force with which the fittings and connectors press together varies due to frictional difference between plastics, the design of the collar threads, the outside diameter of the collar, and inadequate repeatability in the torque screw drivers, among other factors. This variability makes comparisons between different materials and different Luer designs extremely difficult.
Thus, there is a need to test such fittings and connectors, under a constant force, and in standardized conditions, to test the effect of fluids upon Luer fittings and connectors, for different materials of construction. The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing need.